SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis (alternately SLOT analysis) is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective. The technique is credited to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at Stanford University in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. Setting the objective should be done after the SWOT analysis has been performed. This would allow achievable goals or objectives to be set for the organization.

Strengths: characteristics of the business, or project team that give it an advantage over others Weaknesses (or Limitations): are characteristics that place the team at a disadvantage relative to others Opportunities: external chances to improve performance (e.g. make greater profits) in the environment Threats: external elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project

ETOP
There are varieties of reporting formats or profiles used for external and internal business environment analysis. Environmental Threat and Opportunity Profile (ETOP) is commonly used to report the external environmental situation whereas Strategic Advantages Profile (SAP) to report the internal environmental situation1. Both of these profiles can be merged into StrengthWeakness-Opportunity-Threat (SWOT) profile. David used External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix to present weighted score of external

environmental factors. Similarly, he used Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix to make the reporting of internal environmental audit. Whellen & Hunger used External Factors Analysis Summary (EFAS) and Internal Factors Analysis Summary (IFAS) as described. Environmental threats and opportunities profile (ETOP) is a commonly used profile related to external business environment. Strategic advantages profile (SAP) is related to internal business environment. Nowadays, strength & weakness and opportunities & threats (SWOT) profile has become very popular. Present writing pursued the approach of reporting external and internal business environment using the same approach.

Preparing ETOP
Environmental threat and opportunity profile is referred as ETOP profile. It identifies the relevant environmental factors. Such factors might be general environmental factors and task environment factors. Thereafter, it is necessary to identify their nature. Some factors are positive to the organization whereas others are negative. Therefore, it is necessary to find out their impact to the organization. Positive, neutral, and negative sign in ETOP denotes the relevant impact of environmental factors.

PEST analysis
PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a framework of macro-environmental factors used in the environmental scanning component of strategic management. Some analysts added Legal and rearranged the mnemonic to SLEPT; inserting Environmental factors expanded it to PESTEL or PESTLE, which is popular in the United Kingdom. The model has recently been further extended to STEEPLE and STEEPLED, adding Ethics and demographic factors. It is a part of the external analysis when conducting a strategic analysis or doing market research, and gives an overview of the different macro environmental factors that the company has to take into consideration. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. The growing importance of environmental or ecological factors in the first decade of the 21st century have given rise to green business and encouraged widespread use of an updated version of the PEST framework. STEER analysis systematically considers Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors.